Why Did My House Survive?

A homeowner in Malibu shares why her house survived the January Palisades fire while many neighbors' homes burned down. She points to a mix of choices, some deliberate and some lucky, that made the difference. Before the fire, a city fire inspector had visited her home and advised her to keep patio furniture away from the house and clear dead brush and debris from her yard. She and family happened to finish that cleanup just two days before the fire hit, and moved the patio furniture onto the lawn as the wind picked up. Ring camera footage later showed embers blowing toward the spot where that furniture would have been.

Beyond luck, her home had several fire-hardening features already in place: a Class A roof (rated noncombustible), dual-pane windows instead of older single-pane glass, plaster exterior walls with no wood eaves or vents for embers to exploit, weatherstripping sealing all sides of the garage door, and hardscaping instead of plants close to the house, such as gravel, brick pavers, tile, and concrete. Even a wood deck built from ipe, a dense hardwood, resisted burning. Her garage vents, though slightly larger than the recommended 1/8 to 1/16 inch spacing, had an interior grille that kept embers out.

Her home still needs tens of thousands of dollars in cleaning and repair before it's livable again. She's since completed wildfire-defense training and had her home toured by a green building group as an example of what worked, hoping the lessons help other homeowners in fire-prone areas think about their own roofs, vents, windows, and yards.